


Blame It On Your Golden Heart

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Conversations, Everything Hurts, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, I'm Sorry, Matt and Ro are BROTP, Nikita dies, Rosanna blames herself, Rosanna is a cinnamon roll, Survivor Guilt, why do I keep doing this?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-20 20:29:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16144916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: She shrinks herself into a little green ball of tears, cursing herself for the horrible thing she's done.Nikita dies in Episode 3. Rosanna falls apart.An Escape the Night AU.





	Blame It On Your Golden Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Man, I'm back on my usual roll of angst, aren't I. Poor Ro.

Rosanna hates herself. How could she have done that to Nikita? How could she have voted her into the death challenge? Now, Nikita's life is in danger, and if she dies... _oh, God, if she dies, it'll be all my fault._

She can't hold it in anymore. She begins to cry.

"Are you okay?" Joey asks.

Colleen shakes her head. "Ro's struggling," she observes.

Manny brushes some dust off her coat in an obvious attempt to comfort her. "What's wrong?"

"I know...I feel just really guilty..." she sniffles. "I just picked someone who I hadn't worked the most with. I didn't know what else to do." Her heart is breaking. She doesn't want Nikita to die. Of course, she doesn't want Roi to die, either. Why does _anyone_ have to die? Why can't everyone be happy together?

"Like, if they didn't come back, if they died, you'd feel like it was your fault," says Colleen, summing it all up perfectly.

Rosanna's tears fall like silent rain. Matt has a hand on her shoulder, but even his presence isn't enough to soothe her troubled mind. She thinks of Nikita—proud, bold, confident Nikita—and she wants to curl up into a ball and disappear.

Mortimer and Calliope arrive. Mortimer carries the serpent's head. Calliope carries a familiar black jacket, and Rosanna nearly dies when she sees it. "Why do you have Nikita's coat?" Joey demands to know.

"Wait, what?" gulps Manny.

 _Maybe it's not what it looks like,_ thinks Rosanna desperately. _Maybe Nikita just asked her to hold her coat for her. Yeah. That's it. I didn't kill her. I just gotta listen for her voice._

"I did it!"

_Oh, God. That's not Nikita's voice._

Roi Fabito walks through the door, the serpent's heart in his hands, an exhausted but relieved smile on his face. The sight of him sends the room into pandemonium. Safiya gasps. Colleen cheers. Joey yells "What?!?" at the top of his lungs. Matt opens his mouth, then closes it again.

Rosanna's vision blurs with a fresh round of tears. _So it's true._ Her heart feels like it's been dipped in snake venom and is disintegrating in her chest. _Nikita's dead. I killed her. I'm a murderer._

"Omigod!" Teala sounds happier than she's ever been. "Roi! You're back!"

Manny springs to his feet. "Where's Nikita?" he demands to know, his watery eyes brimming with a dangerous sort of grief. "What happened to her? Why isn't she here?"

The sight of Manny's glare wipes Roi's smile off his face. "I'm sorry, guys. I tried to save her, but...the Snake Woman...it all happened so fast..."

"She's gone," says Mortimer quietly.

The confirmation of what they all already knew destroys what's left of Rosanna's broken heart. She shrinks herself into a little green ball of tears, cursing herself for the horrible thing she's done. _Nikita..._ Rosanna wasn't close with the fallen Troublemaker, not at all, but she still remembers how Nikita carried herself like a queen whose time had not yet come to rule. She was sassy. She was outspoken. She was courageous. Now, she's dead, and it's all Rosanna's fault for voting for her.

"I cleansed the artifact, though," says Roi, as if that'll fix everything. "And the Snake Woman died because of it. So at least I avenged her."

Manny collapses back onto the couch and stares at the ceiling with a devastated expression on his face. Calliope, noticing this, walks over to him and offers him Nikita's jacket. He takes it without a word.

As Roi places the serpent's head in one of the cabinets on the shelf, Matt takes Rosanna's trembling hand. "You guys hold on," he tells the group. "I need to talk to Ro outside for a bit."

"Okay," says Joey. "But don't take too long. We only have till sunrise to finish this up."

Matt and Rosanna leave the arcade together. Rosanna looks behind her on the way out, and she sees Teala pull a surprised Roi into a thankful embrace while Colleen claps it up. _At least_ they're _happy._ Rosanna tries to wipe away her tears, but they won't stop flowing.

Once she and Matt are outside, far away from everyone else, Rosanna bursts into sobs.

Matt's arms fall into place around her. "It's okay, Ro," he murmurs as she cries into his orange coat. "It's not your fault. I know you didn't mean anything by it. Besides, I voted for her too."

"But she's _dead,"_ Rosanna wails.

"Yeah," says Matt. "The Snake Woman killed her. Not you. Remember that." He sighs. "I think that's a lesson we both need to learn."

Rosanna can tell that he's thinking of Jc. It's been an hour since Matt failed to save the curly-haired Hippie, but his loss still darkens the Detective's once-clear eyes.

"I guess you're right," she admits through her tears. "I just wish..." She sniffles. "I don't want anyone else to die! I want to go home!"

"Me too, Ro," sighs Matt. "Me too."

They hold each other as the night grows dark around them.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, the next story I write won't be as sad, I promise!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Hero and His Maiden](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480919) by [Bird_Of_Scarlet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bird_Of_Scarlet/pseuds/Bird_Of_Scarlet)




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